Battery Life Tips & Tricks

[hubermania]

Battery charge is the lifeblood of your Pearl Flip. I've scoured this and other forums, and consolidated all the tips I could find into this Tips & Tricks thread. Many thanks to the CrackBerry addicts who originally posted each tip.

Battery Care & Feeding

• A new battery should be charged fully, then depleted to red-line. Repeat for 2-3 cycles to condition the battery.
• Charge the phone nightly. Frequent top-offs are better for a LiIon battery than deep discharges. Consider a charging pod.
• Set the clock option for When Charging: Enter Bedside Mode. This dims the outer screen and turns off LED notifications.
• Once in a great while, red-line the battery. This recalibrates the battery meter.
• The Options screen has a more accurate reading than the battery meter. Settings->Options->Status.

Hardware Tips

• Turn off the Wi-Fi (8220) and/or Bluetooth radios when you aren't using them. Go to Manage Connections.
  [Edit 2011.04.20: Use SmartWiFi to automatically turn Wi-Fi on/off based on cell tower.]
• Turn off the GPS (8230) radio when you aren't using it. Settings->Options->Advanced Options->GPS->GPS Services: Location OFF.
• Use a BlackBerry-branded Flip holster, which has a magnet to trip the in-holster sensor and put the phone in standby mode.
• Use a USB cable for modem tethering instead of a Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth tethering uses a lot of power.

Configuration Tips

• Use UMA (8220) in weak signal areas if possible. Maintaining cell service in a dead zone obviously draws a lot of power.
• Turn off network coverage indicator (green LED). Settings->Options->Screen/Keyboard->LED Coverage Indicator.
• Turn off Bluetooth connection indicator (blue LED). Settings->Options->Bluetooth, click Menu key, choose Options->LED Connection Indicator.
• Set screen brightness as low as tolerable. Settings->Options->Screen/Keyboard->Backlight Brightness.
• Set backlight timeout as low as tolerable. Settings->Options->Screen/Keyboard->Backlight Timeout.
• Set backlight auto-dim to On. Settings->Options->Screen/Keyboard->Automatically Dim Backlight.
• Set profiles to use Tone instead of Vibrate or Vibrate+Tone.

Application Tips

• Update your BlackBerry to the latest firmware. Newer firmware often incorporates battery-saving tweaks.
• Always exit applications using Menu->Exit or Menu->Close. Forgotten applications running in the background will leech your battery. While holding down the Alt key, press Escape then scroll left/right to see the running applications.
• BerryWeather: set updates as infrequent as tolerable. Menu->Settings, "Auto Update" and "Advisory Auto Update".
• E*Trade Mobile Pro: disable streaming quotes
• Slacker: cache stations on your microSD card instead of streaming them OTA.
• WeatherBug: set updates as infrequent as tolerable. Settings->Options->WeatherBug Settings, Menu->Advanced Settings.

I'll track this thread and update the list accordingly.

[redline80]

Great post.Most kind of go without saying however there are quite a few handy little tips.Thanks

[bozeefus]

awesome post. i'm from chicago too lol.

i have a couple of questions though.

gps radio - what exactly is this used for? is it the thing that turns on when BBmaps or googlemaps is triangulating your location? does it have anything to do with radio at all?

slacker - are you able*** to get slacker working over an EDGE connection? i can get it to work over wifi but never EDGE. it just keeps saying "buffering"

thanks again for the great post. it should be stickied.

[hubermania]

Originally Posted by bozeefus

gps radio - what exactly is this used for? is it the thing that turns on when BBmaps or googlemaps is triangulating your location? does it have anything to do with radio at all?

slacker - are you available to get slacker working over an EDGE connection? i can get it to work over wifi but never EDGE. it just keeps saying "buffering"

8230 has a GPS in place of Wi-Fi. As best I could tell from the 8230 user guide, the above is how to switch it off.

I haven't tried Slacker over EDGE. Dead zones and slow buffering over EDGE strengthen the case for caching stations.

[hubermania]

Bump. Added Firmware and UMA tips based on .267 tweaks and stuff I picked up in the Storm forum.

[PeleSheli]

Thanks for the great tips.

Question - when I do Alt Escape (the button under end call/power) I see the running applications. Even when I go to the application, menu, close it still appears in the list when I alt-escape again. This is especially the case with Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Browser and Mail. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[hubermania]

Originally Posted by PeleSheli

Question - when I do Alt Escape (the button under end call/power) I see the running applications. Even when I go to the application, menu, close it still appears in the list when I alt-escape again.

You will always see five "running" applications even after you close them: Home, Browser, Phone, Messages, and BB Messenger. I often switch to the browser just to make sure it comes up on the home page, not running a YouTube of "Gone With the Wind" or something.

[PeleSheli]

Thanks - that makes sense.

[DemonKnight]

Great Post ! keep it ip!

[BB88]

Great Tips. I'm wondering what the GPS radio is for, since the Flip doesn't have GPS function.

[hubermania]

Originally Posted by BB88

Great Tips. I'm wondering what the GPS radio is for, since the Flip doesn't have GPS function.

8230 has GPS, 8220 does not. I put the model number in the corresponding tips.

[vdubguy2k]

Originally Posted by bozeefus

slacker - are you able*** to get slacker working over an EDGE connection? i can get it to work over wifi but never EDGE. it just keeps saying "buffering"

thanks again for the great post. it should be stickied.

I am able to use slacker while just on the EDGE connection. For me it works as well as using wifi....everywhere I have tested works great for me.

Does anyone know if using slacker automatically caches the station to your SD card or is there a setting somewhere for that? I looked but couldn't find anything in the menu settings.

[Teegunn]

Originally Posted by vdubguy2k

I am able to use slacker while just on the EDGE connection. For me it works as well as using wifi....everywhere I have tested works great for me.

Does anyone know if using slacker automatically caches the station to your SD card or is there a setting somewhere for that? I looked but couldn't find anything in the menu settings.

I haven't used Slacker for a while, but I believe there is an option to cache a station if you want. I don't think it does it automatically for you.

[maxknux]

No, Slacker does not do it automatically for you. You highlight the station then select it to cache the station. Once you connect your Flip to your computer via USB, a pop up will come up telling you to sync your Slacker Stations. It will take a time depending on the number of new stations to cache and to refresh the old ones.

[vdubguy2k]

Originally Posted by maxknux

No, Slacker does not do it automatically for you. You highlight the station then select it to cache the station. Once you connect your Flip to your computer via USB, a pop up will come up telling you to sync your Slacker Stations. It will take a time depending on the number of new stations to cache and to refresh the old ones.

Cool thanks for that answer......got it to work perfect for me! I have to say I love this feature now that i now how to use it...time for a bigger SD card hahaha